When asked how it feels to be typecast as the Hot Babe, Mendes is matter-of-fact. “I’m OK with being pigeonholed right now because I created most of it…”, she says. “If I don’t want to be offered sexy roles, then I shouldn’t be on a humongous billboard half-naked… But I want to be on that billboard… You can pigeonhole me now… But it won’t stay that way.”
Sure, Mendes has a killer body, but she’s also learned how to play up her strengths on photo shoots: She sucks in her stomach and tilts her body to the side while keeping her butt down. “We can all look a lot better than we actually are,” Mendes says. “You just have to know how to work it.” And if you ask her, she has no choice: “I’m the girl who eats a margherita pizza before a photo shoot where I have to be scantily clad. I’m very defiant.”